Written for: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) - Ancient Runes
Prompts used:
(word) protection
(word) harmony
"Help me understand ... what is love?" sixteen year old Tom Riddle asked her thirteen year old self.
"Love is a complex emotion which you can find anywhere around you. Love is the emotion two romantic partners may have, or the affection a parent might harbor toward their child. Love comes in different shapes and forms, Tom. Everyone is deserving of love. Even the evilest, meanest wraith's that exist in this world." Rosalyn Kane answered simply.
"Even me? You know what I am, Rosalyn. Do I deserve love?" he asked her.
"Yes you do, Tom. You deserve love in every shape and form of it." she assured him.
"Then tell me, if this love is so great, how come you haven't experienced it?" he challenged her.
"Oh I have, Tom. My parents may be dead and I may not have a boyfriend, but I have experienced love, in more than one way. I experience love everyday, when I talk to my friends, when I go about my daily life, when I'm with you."
"I don't have any friends. I don't have a girlfriend. Both of my parents are dead. I have no family. I can't have love." Tom shook his head bitterly.
"But aren't I your friend, Tom?" Rose asked him quietly.
He looked thoughtful. "You may be."
"Do I give you a feeling of peace? The feeling of harmony washing over you when you need comfort? You do that to me, Tom. Do I do the same for you?" she asked him.
"Yes." Tom acceded quietly.
"Well then, I'm your friend." she said firmly.
After a brief silence, Tom started speaking again.
"How do you know what love it, Rose?"
She pondered on the question. "Love ... I discovered love when I discovered hate. When I discovered I could dislike someone so much, that it was only natural that I might someday feel the opposite for someone else. I knew it was love the moment I felt it. It was unexplainable. Do you know when I first felt love, Tom?"
He shook his head.
"It was with you, Tom. I was eleven, I had just arrived at Hogwarts. The first known muggleborn Slytherin ... what a disgrace to the House. But you were the only one who saw the potential in me, you took me under your wing and offered me protection. For the first time in my life, I felt loved." Rose spoke quietly.
"Do I really make you feel that way? Do you feel loved around me?" Tom asked her.
She nodded her head fervently. "You do, Tom! Believe me, you do!"
"Then I love you." he said firmly.
"And I love you." she nodded her head agreeably.
And with that, a warm feeling gathered in Tom Riddle's chest, unlike he'd ever felt before. He slowly felt pent up rage from the years he'd lived in the orphanage leave him. He caught himself smiling at the nymph of a girl sitting before him under the shade of the tree, studying her nails and sitting with her legs crossed.
She'd made him feel loved. She truly was unique.